Literature
Reviews withMAXQDA

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/Christina_QDAS
Mastodon: @ChristinaSilver@sciences.social
Twitter: @Christina_QDAS
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/christina-qdas/
Instagram: @christina_qdas
Facebook: facebook.com/QDAservices
YouTube: youtube.com/@ChristinaSilverPhD
Podcast: anchor.fm/christina-qdas
Research Gate: researchgate.net/profile/Christina-Silver
Academia.edu: surrery.academia.edu/ChristinaSilver

MAXQDA includes many tools that can be used to facilitate a literature review. In previous
Spotlight Sessions on this topic, I have discussed several of these, emphasizing theimportance of ensuring the use of MAXQDA is driven by the analytic needs of the type ofliterature review you’re doing. The previous three Spotlight Sessions on this topic areavailable on the MAXQDA YouTube channel, and they cover the following topics:•

2021 Spotlight http://tinyurl.com/Lit2021Spotlighto Importing references and metadata from bibliographic tools (Endnote, Mendeley, Zotero)o Using documents to create your own critical appraisals that can be analysed•2022 Spotlight http://tinyurl.com/Lit2022Spotlighto Screening abstracts for inclusion/exclusion using codes & document-setso Assessing quality at quantitative & qualitative levels using codes & variables•2023 Spotlight http://tinyurl.com/Lit2023Spotlighto Importing and working with PDF files directly : marking & paraphrasingo Coding to systematise thinking about literature, integrate with other data & make comparisonsThis year we focus on the use of AI Assist in contributing to doing a literature review
focusing on summarizing, suggesting codes and explaining text passages.
Note: if you would like copies of the slides from today’s Spotlight or any of the previous
ones, please email me at christina.silver@qdaservices.co.uk

Spotlight with Christina Silver, PhD (2024)

https://linktr.ee/Christina_QDAS
1

Using AI Assist Summarization for a literature review
Whatever you’re summarizing using AI Assist, you get to choose among several options
for how the summary will be generated – for example the language the ai-generated
summary will be produced in (this does not have to be the same language as the
document itself), the length of the summary (longer, standard or shorter) and whether
you want the summary as a paragraph or a bullet pointed list.
In addition, you can use AI Assist to summarize on several different levels. These aredescribed below, largest first:•Summarize a document: this might initially seem the most obvious and useful formof AI-generated summary for a literature review, and it can be accomplished easily
for each full-text article or other piece of literature you have imported into aproject. Document summaries can be generated one document at a time, easily by
Right Clicking on the document of choice in the Document System and choosing theAI Assist: Summarize Document option. The AI summary is created within a linked
memo for that documento This can be a useful initial overview of each piece of literature, allowing you to geta more in-depth understanding of what the article is about than the abstract
might give you, but without having to read the whole article.

Spotlight with Christina Silver, PhD (2024)

https://linktr.ee/Christina_QDAS2

•Summarize coded segments: if there are particular parts of the articles you’rereviewing that you want to focus on, for example, the methods sections, tounderstand how the topic area has been researched in the past, you can first code
those sections, and then summarize the coded-segments for that code. When using
this option you can optionally scope the ai-generated summary to activateddocuments. Note there is a 80,000 character limit on this feature so you may findyou need to scope in this way
o These summaries will be more analytically focused around parts of the literature
you are particularly interested in, which might not be standardized sections like
‘Methods’ in this example, but more thematic areas of interest you have alreadycoded for, based on the topic of interest or identified gaps in the literature, forexampleo Note that when doing this you may be summarizing content from across several
documents, so the summary will combine information from all of them. There iscurrently no way to see directly from the summary which document is beingreferenced when summarizing in this way

In the example below the ‘Methods’ code is summarized but only for activated documents (those articles
published since 2015)

Spotlight with Christina Silver, PhD (2024)

https://linktr.ee/Christina_QDAS
3

•Summarize coded segments via Summary Grids. An alternative to ‘globally’summarizing at the code level is to do so via Summary Grids, whereby the codedsegments for the code of interest are summarized separately for each (activated)document.
o The benefit of this approach is that you can trace more clearly which document
the content comes from, and make direct comparisons in the Summary Grids•

Summarize and Paraphrase text segments. These options are similar to one
another in that they use AI Assist to summarize segments of text without the priorneed to code (as is necessary in the previous two options, above). The image
overleaf shows the difference, in terms of the nature of the summary that isgenerated and where and how they are displayedo When summarizing a text segment, you have the same length choices aspreviously, and the AI summary is place in an in-document memo (viewable as anicon in the left margin and displayed in full in the right sidebar if that display
option is chosen)

Spotlight with Christina Silver, PhD (2024)

https://linktr.ee/Christina_QDAS4

o When paraphrasing a text segment, there is no choice regarding length, asparaphrases are always short. They will also be displayed in the side panel

The additional functionality you have when paraphrasing in this way is that you cansubsequently view all AI paraphrases together (or selectively by activating documents)and optionally categorize the paraphrases to move to the coding level via yourinterpretations. Note that you can view and work with all paraphrases together in thisway – i.e. any you created yourself as well as those created using AI Assist.

Spotlight with Christina Silver, PhD (2024)

https://linktr.ee/Christina_QDAS
5Using AI Assist Coding for a literature review
There are now three ways to use AI Assist for coding. Consider for what purpose andwhen coding is appropriate (it might not be if you have a large number of articles (see2021 Spotlight on creating and analyzing critical appraisals of literature rather thanworking directly with full-text articles).
Code Suggestions for a literature review
You can ask AI Assist to suggest codes in two ways: via a code (sub-code suggestions) andvia a selected text segment.
•Code suggestions via a code. From the RC menu of a code you can generate codesuggestions based on the segments coded to the code. You can choose to haveexamples from the text bullet-pointed for each sub-codeo This is usefully accomplished together with AI Code Summaries which aredisplayed in the same menu, and retrieving the coded-segments themselves

Spotlight with Christina Silver, PhD (2024)

https://linktr.ee/Christina_QDAS
6

•

Code suggestions via a selected text segment. Simply select a text segment, andhave AI Assist suggest possible codes from that segment.
o This is particularly useful if you want to remain primarily in control of the analytic
process yourself, and code as you previously might have done, but have somesuggestions that you can pick and choose from whilst reading and interpretingthe text sequentiallyIf you choose to apply any of the suggested codes, they are displayed in the Code Systemand linked code memos contain the explanations. Once codes are created in this way they
can be used like any other code – and the content of the memo adjusted as you add moresegments and review them as you proceed.

Spotlight with Christina Silver, PhD (2024)

https://linktr.ee/Christina_QDAS
7

•AI Coding a Document. Select one Document and ask AI Assist via the RC menu tostart AI Coding. You choose an existing Code and specify a clear definition,
providing examples of what should or should not be coded (inclusion and exclusion
criteria). AI Assist examines the document and finds segments that match,providing an explanation for the rationale for coding each segment.
o The way AI coding is implemented keeps you in control of what is happening – forliterature reviews this is particularly important, so consider useful codes (thesemay not only be topic based)

Spotlight with Christina Silver, PhD (2024)

https://linktr.ee/Christina_QDAS
8Using AI Assist Explaining Text Segments for a literature review
In addition is the ability to have AI Assist clarify terms, concepts, theories, technicalterminology, or anything in the literature that you are unclear about the meaning of. Thiscan be particularly useful when the author has neglected to define a term, or you are
unsure whether the way they are using particular terms reflects broader understandings.
Note, this feature, designed as it is to explain terms, has a character limit of 15 characters.

Using AI Assist Chat in your Literature Review
You can Chat with one Document or Chat with Coded Segments using AI Assist, in aconversational interface.
•Chat with one Document. Select the relevant Document and via RC or theshortcut icon start the Chat. A pop-up conversation window appears

Spotlight with Christina Silver, PhD (2024)

https://linktr.ee/Christina_QDAS9•

Chat with Coded Segments. Start this off from several places, including RC on acode, or via the Retrieved Segments window when you have activated theDocuments/Codes you’re interested in.
o Chatting with Coded Segments can be useful for literature reviews when e.g. you
have codes relating to theories, gaps in knowledge, citations and so on

Spotlight with Christina Silver, PhD (2024)

https://linktr.ee/Christina_QDAS
10

Integrating AI Assist in your Literature Review Workflow
The AI Assist features are most usefully seen as an addition to the suite of tools andanalytic techniques you may already be using to undertake a literature review, rather thanas a replacement for them – hence the name AI Assist. As discussed in previous Spotlight
Sessions on this topic, your literature review methodology (your analytic strategy) should
drive your use of MAXQDA’s tools (your tactics).
It is definitely worth experimenting with these AI tools, and considering whether and how
they may support your work.

Spotlight with Christina Silver, PhD (2024)

https://linktr.ee/Christina_QDAS
11